When I recently met Kevin O‘Connor, he whipped out a bottle from a brown paper bag. O’Connor, who has worked at Michelin-starred establishments in California’s Bay Area such as Coi and Saison, didn’t strike me as the type to hide his booze. But it wasn’t that. It was a bottle of olive oil, purchased at a regular supermarket, with the label hidden. I took a whiff and reeled at the motor oil smell. I took a taste out of duty, and I'll spare you the rest.
O'Connor is chef-at-large for Cobram Estate, one of Australia’s best-known olive oil producers, which recently found an additional home in Woodland, California. It now enjoys the benefit of two harvests a year, from both hemispheres.
